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HARRISBURG — When the state Democratic Party holds its winter meeting this weekend, the primary agenda item is a routine one: picking candidates for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and other judicial races. But roiling below the surface is a widening rift that is raising questions about — and possibly prompting challenges to — the leadership of the party, as well as its relevance and role in the high-stakes races in 2016. At the same time Democrats are celebrating a historic victory in the 2014 governor's race, they convened in Hershey on Friday with the GOP holding a record majority in the state House, two people who had been bright stars of the party in legal...

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HARRISBURG — When the state Democratic Party holds its winter meeting this weekend, the primary agenda item is a routine one: picking candidates for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and other judicial races.
But roiling below the surface is a widening rift...

How precious in the sight of progressives was one of their saints, Mario Cuomo, the three-term governor of New York who died last week at age 82. He was a model of progressivism and a gifted rhetorician.In most media accounts, references were made to...

— Democrats will be heading to Philadelphia next year for their national convention to nominate the party's presidential candidate.The decision announced Thursday will put Pennsylvania in the national spotlight as Democrats attempt to hold on to the White...

WASHINGTON — For Democrats, New York would offer a diverse tableau in liberal Brooklyn and a touch of Clinton nostalgia. Philadelphia would give the party a patriotic backdrop while Columbus would raise the curtain on another campaign showdown in Ohio.
...

TRENTON, N.J. — As he eyes a potential presidential run, Chris Christie delivered a State of the State speech Tuesday aimed at defining his record as New Jersey governor for a national audience, calling for an "American renewal" while offering...

As Washington welcomes the 114th Congress, the capacity of our national legislature to address the nation's problems is in doubt.
Public approval of Congress hovers near historic lows. The contrast between Congress' bare ability to pass routine...

After being elected to Lehigh County Court in November 2011, Doug Reichley resigned from his job as a Republican state representative.
But, unbeknownst to Reichley, his old employer — the Pennsylvania House of Representatives — kept his expense...

WASHINGTON — Most of the Lehigh Valley's congressional delegation supported a wide-ranging spending bill crafted to keep the federal government operating.
But that doesn't mean they liked the highly dramatic, last-minute process of moving that bill...

In the old Soviet Union, Kremlinologists would read the state party newspaper Pravda not so much for the news it contained, but to glean what the commissars wanted readers to believe the commissars were thinking.The closest we have to that in America is...

With his announcement that the United States will open negotiations and try to normalize relations with Cuba, President Barack Obama is trying to break the hold of the Cuba lobby once and for all.
In historical terms, that's a remarkable undertaking. For...

U.S. Rep. Robert Brady, the chairman of the Philadelphia Democratic Party, on Wednesday called state Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane "asleep at the switch" and said he had no faith in his fellow Democrat as the state's top law enforcement...

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania got a double whammy of bad news Thursday in separate reports, one projecting a nearly $2 billion budget deficit, and another saying the state had maxed out its borrowing.
The Independent Fiscal Office, in its long-term...

On questions ranging from U.S. treatment of the Ebola outbreak to immigration reform, the two candidates vying to represent the 17th Congressional District squared off during a debate Tuesday before an audience of Lehigh Valley voters.
The debate, held...

Really fat wallets were opened in governor's raceDemocratic Gov.-elect Tom Wolf and the Republican incumbent he defeated, Gov. Tom Corbett, spent a record $60.5 million in the 2014 election campaign, the latest campaign finance reports show.The...

The race between Republican incumbent Justin Simmons and Democrat Michael Beyer for the 131st District state House seat has already been more personal than most.That was in evidence Friday when they squared off at a candidates forum recorded at PBS39 in...

A bill to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline failed in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, sparing President Barack Obama from an expected veto of legislation that several fellow Democrats including Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey supported.
The measure fell...

Last night's election results were the stuff of sweeping gestures.
The first modern Pennsylvania governor to be denied a second term and the end of the eight-year party swaps. Republicans taking definitive control of the U.S. Senate. The GOP padding...

Two newly minted Democrats have joined the group being considered for a vacancy on Allentown City Council.
Roger MacLean, Allentown's former police chief, and Stephen Walker, a marketing consultant and publisher, have joined a group of five people who...

We survived the 2014 midterm elections. The American people have spoken. But what did they say?
One thing we know for certain, the voters did not like President Obama. What is surprising, however, is how quickly political pundits began focusing on the...

State lawmakers will now have some say in how Pennsylvania meets new federal clean air regulations limiting carbon emissions from power plants.Gov. Tom Corbett signed legislation Wednesday that gives the House or Senate the ability to veto, at least...